DANCING TO CLASSICAL MUSIC? WHY NOT?
October 26, 2007 by Lynne
In today’s New York Times, Daniel Levitin writes on a topic we have already discussed in these posts, because it is fundamental to our workshops. His take on it is worth reading. He calls it “Dancing in the Seats.” (Click on his title to read the original article.)
Levitin, who is a professor of psychology and music at McGill University in Montreal, studies the many aspects of music’s effects on our brains. He points out that “The ancient connections between music and movement show up in the laboratory. Brainscans…make it clear that both the motor cortex and cerebellum–the parts of the brain responsible for initiating and coordinating movements–are active during music listening, even when people lie perfectly still. Singing and dancing have been shown to modulate brain chemistry, specifically levels of dopamine, the “feel good” neurotransmitter.”
The bottom line is his strong belief that we would all have more fun in the concert hall if we could get up and move to the music. He recommends–tongue in cheek perhaps–that when Lincoln Center is renovated, some of the seats should be ripped out to give listeners room and permission to move to the beat of Ravel or Mahler or even Bach.
Try this in your own livingroom: put on a piece of classical music that you love and move to the music in any way that feels “right.” If you can’t actually move around safely, conduct the music or at least sway your body and tap your foot to it from a chair. As`Levitin says, “Music can be a more satisfying cerebral experience if we let it move us physically.” The more open you are to this, the more you’ll get from it.
JAZZ, A MUSIC WITHOUT BOUNDARIES
October 19, 2007 by Josh
It was around 1917 in New Orleans that Louis Armstrong acquired his first Victrola and began collecting records. He once recalled it this way: “Big event for me then was buying a wind-up Victrola. Most of my records were the Original Dixieland Jazz Band–Larry Shields and his bunch. They were the first to record the music I played. I had Caruso records too, and Henry Burr, Galli-Curci, Tetrazzini–they were all my favorites. Then there was the Irish tenor, McCormack–beautiful phrasing.”
These operatic influences were a critically important element in shaping Armstrong’s whole cognitive process during his formative years. They help explain much of the bravura of his brilliant playing. Even more fascinating is how sound bites from such operas as Verdi’s RIGOLETTO, Bizet’s CARMEN, or Leoncavallo’s PAGLIACCI can be found embedded in his improvisations. In fact, in one of his interviews he spontaneously burst out singing an excerpt from the “Quartet” from RIGOLETTO, saying “that was the first thing I used to make all the time”–meaning that early on he practiced this “lick” in different keys.
In addition, there is a unique piece performed by Armstrong called “Skid-Dat-De-Dat.” In all fairness, most of the credit for the creation of this number should go to Armstrong’s second wife, Lil Hardin. The structure of this piece is totally unique in that it is organized in modules of four measures, with an underpinning of four chords moving in whole notes, one per measure. The reason I say that it is “totally unique” is simply that the form of most jazz pieces from this period is based on the twelve-bar blues or the thirty-bar structure of the popular song–sometimes called “Broadway song form.” In any event, basing my research on very compelling circumstantial evidence, I have concluded that this structural detail is explained by Lil Hardin’s classical music studies at the time, including her earning a diploma from the Chicago College of Music and giving a recital of music by Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, and others. Specifically, I have argued that “Skid-Dat-De-Dat” owes a huge debt to the fugue subject with which the finale of Mozart’s last symphony, the “Jupiter,” begins.
Later jazz musicians, like Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, and the Modern Jazz Quartet also borrowed ideas from such composers as Stravinsky, Ravel, Bartok, Hindemith and J.S. Bach–a topic too vast to pursue for now in any detail.
For those interested in pursuing this topic further, a good place to start are some of my own publications:
“Louis Armstrong and Opera” THE MUSICAL QUARTERLY, Summer 1992.
THE MUSICAL WORLD OF J.J. JOHNSON (Scarecrow Press and Institute of Jazz Studies, paperback edition, 2002)
LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND PAUL WHITEMAN: TWO KINGS OF JAZZ (Yale University Press, 2004)
As a music without boundaries jazz clearly fosters a spirit of openness and a receptivity to ideas coming from many different sources, some of which might be surprising to many listeners.
A MAGICAL BEETHOVEN MOMENT–ONE OF MY DESERT ISLAND CHOICES
October 14, 2007 by Josh
I have had a love affair with a piece of music for almost sixty years. I am talking about Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4 in G. There are so many details in this masterwork that transport me to a very special place of sheer joy, especially the opening fourteen measures–a magical introduction to a very great work that in performance lasts some 38 precious seconds.
Like the genius he is, Beethoven breaks with tradition by having the piano begin with a solo. What he uses–something conclusively known from his sketchbooks and clearly audible to anyone familiar with Beethoven’s music–is a serene, gentle version of the fate motive with which his Symphony no. 5 begins.
At the very start, we hear the pitch of b as a melody note supported by G major chord. But when the orchestra softly and sweetly comes in, that same pitch of b is now part of a B major chord–an absolutely magical touch. And before we know it, we have been brought back ever so gently to the home key of G.
There are some wonderful recordings of this piece. The one I first heard, in the 1940’s, features a performance by the great Artur Schnabel and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Issay Dobrowen. A more recent performance that I own and treasure is part of the Complete Piano Concertos with Alfred Brendel and the Chicago Symphony conducted by James Levine. Another performance, whose opening takes my breath away, is by Krystian Zimerman and the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, near the end of his life.
Any one of these would be an asset to own and listen to repeatedly.
JAZZ IMPROVISATION–WHAT IT REALLY IS.
October 14, 2007 by Josh
I have heard people say so many times “when jazz people improvise, they make things up as they go along.” Even some music appreciation textbooks that I’ve seen say pretty much the same thing.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Think about it. Very few jazz performers work completely alone. To “make things up as they go along” would only invite chaos. Instead, every player in the group improvises on the underlying structure of each piece of music played, sharing an understanding of this with all the other musicians in the group.
In fact, a huge body of jazz depends on working with what are called “standards.” These can be blues like “St. Louis Blues,” or songs like “I Got Rhythm,” “Body and Soul,” or “Summertime.” All of this music has a definite form and phrase structure as well as a pattern of chords that serve as the underlying skeleton upon which the improvisation is built.
In most live performances of jazz, the reason the audience applauds after various musicians’ solos–that is, their improvisations on the bones of the original piece–is that a good improvisation is such a source of real satisfaction, indeed happiness, to both performers and to any perceptive listener as we hear a new “take” on an old melody.